254: The Man Who Planted Trees and Zohran Mamdani

Dear friends

Strategy, Soul & Self weaves together three threads, I believe are essential to leadership and life. First, the ability to hold a compelling vision — and translate it into social and organisational reality. Second, the awareness that no matter how much we learn, the world remains complex, interconnected, humbling and surprising — and that we are better when we stay connected: to the world, to each other, and to ourselves. Third, the recognition that anything of sustained meaning requires that we understand, care for, and strengthen ourselves. And that the three are intimately connected.

While I draw deliberately from the familiar domains of strategy, leadership, psychology, and organisational life, I often fold in the unexpected — the literary, history, the spiritual, the poetic and the allegorical. My intent is to create friction — a provocation, a pause that disrupts the skim; an invitation to return to your own thinking, refreshed and from a different vantage.

Today, that friction takes centre stage. Our entire letter turns to Jean Giono’s fable of transformation and personal agency: The Man Who Planted Trees.

/strategy
Written in the first person, Giono describes walking through a “landscape of unparalleled desolation” in which “the wind blew cruelly. The sound of it raging through the carcasses of the houses was like the snarl of a wild beast disturbed over its prey”.

In this harsh environment, “Families… seethe with conflicting egotisms. Ambitions swell to wild proportions among them, so desperate and unrelenting is the desire to escape… There are epidemics of suicide and many cases of madness, usually homicidal”.

He had been unable to find water for days, and quite desperate, met a shepherd – Elzéard Bouffier – who takes him into his home, offers him a meal and a bed for the night.

Giona spent the following day with the shepherd, who spent it planting acorns, discovering that over the last three years, he’d planted 100,000, of which 20,000 had come up and he expected that 10,000 would make it to maturity.

There’s a strategy lesson inside this act: too often, we give up because ‘our idea didn’t land’. But no one has a 100% success rate. Ever. He planted 100,000; 10,000 endured. It is the pattern, the rhythm, the commitment over time that makes the difference.

Six years pass before Giona can go back. It is now 1919 and a forest has grown covering kilometres of land. The shepherd keeps planting, his actions unseen, unknown, unauthorised, unacknowledged.

By 1945, the dry winds are replaced by a ‘soft and scented breeze’, ancient springs are flowing, vegetable gardens flourishing, the community growing in number and happiness.

Giono notes “There seemed to be a chain reaction in all this creation, but Elzéard Bouffier didn’t trouble about that: he just went stubbornly in with his task, simple and natural as ever.”

Transforming complex systems is overwhelming. The many dependencies, many variables, and countless potential approaches can paralyse us. Never underestimate the compounding power of one simple act done repeatedly with intent and integrity.

The very complexity that holds us back from beginning is an asset.

Simple, consistent acts can create ripples you’d never imagine.

Try it. For example, each day for the next month intentionally acknowledging a family member or colleague for the specific way they impact on your world and what you appreciate about them because of that and watch your world transform.

Bouffier was planting trees. He hadn’t announced it to anyone and so, “the change came about so slowly, people got used to it and took it for granted… That was why no one interfered with what the shepherd had done. If they’d suspected what he was up to they’d have tried to stop him. But no one did suspect it. How could anyone, whether in the villages or in government offices, have imagined such perseverance, such magnificent generosity?”

Transformation doesn’t always require permission; often it just needs intention. You’ll be surprised at what change you can create by consistent, generous action.

//self
Giono’s epigraph reads “To see a human being reveal really exceptional qualities one must be able to observe his activities over many years. If these activities are completely unselfish; if the idea motivating them is unique in its magnanimity; if it is quite certain they have never looked for any reward; and if in addition they have left visible traces on the world – the one may say, without fear of error; that one is in the presence of an unforgettable character”.

It is a high standard by which to live one’s life, inspiring too.

///soul
One year after the horrors of WW1, standing in the midst of the shepherd-planted forest, Giono reflects, “When you remembered that it had all emerged from the hands and spirit of this one man, without any technical aids, you saw that men could be as efficient as God in other things than destruction”.

I can think of no more important reminder at this moment, in this world, where some leaders repeatedly visit horrors upon us.

This week, as you all know, Zohran Mamdani, won the Democratic Party’s primary to run as mayor of New York City.

In this interview, he is asked, “Why is Palestine part of your politics?”

He responds, “When you grow up as someone, especially in the Third World, you have a very different understanding of the Palestinian struggle. It is one that is framed in terms of empathy and solidarity. Specifically, growing up in South Africa post-apartheid it felt as if one of the most natural things to wear around my body was a keffiyeh.”

It is a powerful reminder of complexity. Mamdani spent some of his early years in one place, this place that I am writing from. Now, twenty-five years later, in a different place, those experiences provide the friction needed to spark hope in a dark world.

Plant. Your forest will grow.

Karl
PS: This community has always grown when a friend forwards this letter to another. If this one reminded you of someone, you know what to do. They can subscribe here. You’ll also find me on LinkedIn.
PPS: Thank you to those who’ve reached out for introductory conversations. I look forward to meeting you in the next few weeks. My coaching practice is now fully booked until October, but I’ll share an update here as soon as space becomes available.